


Emptying the Rat Traps

by matrixrefugee



Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett, Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 01:37:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18297665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matrixrefugee/pseuds/matrixrefugee
Summary: Dean encounters the strangest reaper yet...





	Emptying the Rat Traps

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Dean Winchester/The "Death" of Rats from the Disc Verse. Dean thought he had seen it all.](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/384733.html?thread=65512157#t65512157) Been a while since I read the Discworld books, so any errors in characterization is due to that.

The moment Dean laid eyes on the motel room, it had looked as if it might have a few little visitors lurking in the walls, something about the air and the way the legs of the furniture looked nibbled. Well, hopefully management had had the exterminator in recently. No visible rat or mouse holes at first, till he had tried loading a shotgun and dropped one of the shells, which rolled under an end table, and he got down on hands and knees to see where it had gone to. Sure enough, he found a small hole in the baseboard, something with toothmarks around it. Guess he would have to be extra careful not to leave any leftovers from dinner, when he went to pick it up.

Of course, the notion went out of his head, when he went to grab a bag of burgers and ended up grabbing some company for the night to share them with: a cute counter clerk named Trixie, who had a cute little giggle, like a happy, squeaky little mouse (not that Dean was into animal-people, but somehow it worked on *her*).

He had gotten up in the middle of the night to take a leak, and on the way back from the bathroom, he felt his foot on something small and squashy. He pulled his foot back, but it came a moment too late: he looked down to find, in the patch of light from the open bathroom door, the smalll, flattened body of a young rat, likely in search of the greasy burger bags in the trash can.

Dammit. Back when they were kids, he and Sammy had once lived in a house plagued with the creatures, and back then, it had been Dean's job to set and empty the rat traps. Not his favorite job, even though he had gotten used to getting his hands dirty.

He started to look for something to use to scoop up the carcass, when he heard something scrabble out of the corner. He looked around for something to swat the thing, when he saw a shape solidify out of the shadows.

A tiny figure in a black hood, carrying a weensy scythe in its tiny skeletal paws, seemed to step out of the darkness. It approached the rat carcass and held the scythe over it.

"The hell are you?" Dean demanded, keeping his voice low and leaning down over the newcomer.

"SQUEAK" the creature said, tilting its skull-like head up, looking into him with deep eye sockets that seemed to look into his soul.

"What the... you're... a reaper?" he asked, taking a few hurried steps backward.

"SQUEAK." the reaper of... rodents, he figured, replied, plain and simple, as if to say 'yes'.

"Well right when I thought I'd seen everything," Dean said. "There a Reaper for every kind of critter out there? Must get pretty busy around slaughterhouses and during hunting season. Bet you *love* exterminator service... things."

"SQUEAK, SQUEAK SQUEEEEAK." the Reaper of Rats replied, a bit tiredly.

"Didn't mean to give you more work," Dean replied, stepping out of the way and letting the tiny Reaper do its job.

"SQUEAK SQUEAK-SQUEAK." the Reaper of Rats replied and swung the scythe. Dean thought he hear something like a tiny thread cutting. And then only the carcass of the rat remained. 

Somehow, it felt easier to pick up the dead rat, now that he had had that small visitor to help him clean up the last of the mess, as if it had removed some of the stain...  



End file.
